With 2 billion daily active users, advanced targeting options, and built-in analytics, Facebook ads have become a no-brainer for local service businesses looking to grow.
It is one of the best ways for car detailing shops like yours to get new business in 2024!
Plus, it’s really easy to set up ad campaigns too!
In this guide, I’ll cover everything you need to know on how to run car detailing Facebook ads.
#1 Getting Started
First you need a Facebook page.
If you have one already, optimize it a bit by adding all the information like emails, phone numbers, profile pics etc..
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Make it look professional. And if you can, publish a couple of posts too.
After that’s done, head over to Facebook Ads Manager and sign in with your Facebook account and link the business page you just made.
Now, click on “create new campaign”.
For the campaign objective, you can select either Messages or Conversions. If you have an amazing CRO optimized website, Traffic should also be ok.
Here’s a video walkthrough on how to do all that if you are still confused:
#2 Ad Copy And Creative
Up next is the actual ad. This needs to be really great and attention grabbing otherwise people won’t even pause scrolling to read it.
The ad can be broken down into 2 parts. The copy and the creative.
Creative
You can use either images or videos, but research shows that video converts better.
This doesn’t mean images of pristine, shiny car exteriors / interiors or before / after images are not impactful. They are good too.
Here are some ideas to think about –
- Short Timelapses of detailing services being performed.
- Before and after images that show the transformation.
- Shots of vacuuming, scrubbing, polishing etc..
- Short videos of the spotless car interior and exterior.
- Satisfaction shots of delighted customers picking up their rides.
Whatever you use, it needs to be of high quality and really well done.
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Copy And CTR
The ad copy is as important as the creative.
Headlines
You also need intriguing headlines to grab attention.
Test offering focused value statements like “Make Your Car Look New for $199”, or maybe imagination-sparking questions like “Is Your Car Due for an Interior Deep Clean?”
Try to connect emotionally by talking about the joy of driving a car that looks brand new.
Also, if you work in a specific area, focus your ads there.
You can try a bunch of headlines and look at the numbers later to figure out which headlines get the most engagement.
Ad Description
In the description, tell them exactly what they get in the package like washing, hand drying, vacuuming, conditioning leather, etc…
Also bring up your friendly team and mention how long it takes.
All this is important because otherwise you might get leads that won’t convert as well.
Plus, you are wasting your budget.
You want those messages to be of people who know everything and are ready to buy – and not people asking for more details.
CTR
You must close the ad with a strong call-to-action.
You can use a call-to-action button like “Get Quote”, “Book Now” or “Send A Message” so users can easily take the next step.
#3 Ad Targeting
The next part of your car detailing Facebook ads is ad targeting.
This is what will either make or break your campaign. Get these wrong and you won’t make sales or good ROI.
Ok to the basics first.
So for age, I recommend the 30-65 years old range because they actually care about vehicle maintenance unlike college students.
Gender, you can target both male and female.
Location
When setting up Facebook ads for car detailing, you must only target people around where your shop is located. No one is going to drive like 30 KMs when there’s a shop in their town.
So, set a radius of like 20 miles max starting from your shop address. This includes potential customers in a drivable distance.
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You can also target zip codes and neighborhoods near your detailing shop too.
And be absolutely sure to select “people living in these places” when picking locations.
This option keeps your ads local, only showing to residents rather than random people just passing through town.
Detailed Targeting
This is THE most important part of the entire campaign. Spend a lot of time here and think like an average car owner and brainstorm targeting ideas.
I’ll show a few examples to get you started:
Demographics
First up, let’s set a demographic filter.
You’ll do well targeting higher income and wealth groups – so set household income to $75K per year minimum. Six figures is even better if your service is premium-priced.
This makes sure people can afford high-quality detailing.
Behavioral
Using behavioral filters, you can target ONLY car owners.
There is a menu under behaviors called “Automotive” which allows you to target car owners, car buyers, car shoppers etc..
You can get specific here too and target the make and models of the vehicles, vehicle age, vehicle prices and a whole lot more.
It’s kinda creepy that Facebook has all this data of people, right? Luckily they don’t grab them when you are browsing Facebook, but through other data mining companies.
Depending on your offers, you can set these targeting up.
Interests
You can also set up interest targeting which will narrow down the audience even more.
Facebook will find people who engage / search for these interests.
Here are some examples to target:
- Auto detailing
- Auto maintenance
- Car care
- Auto customization
- Car tuning
- Car Wash
Lookalike Audiences
Lookalike Audiences is a super powerful feature for finding more people similar to your existing customers.
For this to work, you need to give Facebook data of people interested in your service.
The source can be an email list of previous customers, page followers / video viewers, or website visitors (you need the pixel for that).
There are a lot more source options, but the most effective is the email list.
Note: I advise using a list of at least 1000 emails of your best customers.
Facebook will scan their details like location, age, gender, interests, behavior and a lot more. After that, it’ll find more people who match the qualities of your proven buyers.
Tracking Results And ROI
Once ads start running, you have to keep a close eye on these key metrics:
- Impressions and reach which show how many eyeballs your ads are getting
- Clicks indicate people actually engaging.
- Conversions. Could be calls or booking revenue.
You also have to calculate straight return on ad dollars spent. For example, if you spent $100 over 7 days and booked $350 in new business, that 250% return!
After you get an idea, find the underperforming ads showing a loss and remove them.
But do pour more budget into winners with positive ROI.
Final Thoughts
To win with Facebook ads, you have to experiment a lot and fine-tune on what works with your audience. So test test test!
Try different ad creatives, copy, and detail targeting options.
